The House of Arnor
The House of of Arnor was founded in the year 453 C.E. by the mighty conqueror Elitiel the Eternal. For over 200 years it has ruled of Ios from the Arnorian seat of power in the capital city of Terminium and the regional capital of Galinor. The current Lord of Arnor is Smetana the 1st who has ruled for the past nine years. He is the last surviving direct relative of Elitiel the Eternal. Arnor is known for its coastal cities, valiant knights, cunning politicians, and ties with the Church of Io. The Lords of House Arnor -The Reign of Elitiel the Eternal, 1st Lord of Arnor: 453 - 505 C.E. - The Reign of Athalos the Cunning, 2nd Lord of Arnor: 505 - 510 C.E. - The Reign of Forthwind the Righteous, 3rd Lord of Arnor: 510 - 533 C.E. - The Reign of Terryn the Great, 4th Lord of Arnor: 533 - 574 C.E. - The Reign of Melcior the Terrible, 5th Lord of Arnor: 574 - 576 C.E. - The Reign of Melcior II the Blessed, 6th Lord of Arnor: 576 - 621 C.E. - The Reign of Adriar the Brave, 7th Lord of Arnor: 621 - 652 C.E. - The Reign of Ulric the Conqueror, 8th Lord of Arnor: 652 - 688 C.E. - The Reign of Fendel the Wise, 9th Lord of Arnor: 688 - 699 C.E. - The Reign of Smetana, 10th Lord of Arnor: 699 C.E. - Present The History of Arnor: The Reign of Elitiel the Eternal, founder of Arnor 453 C.E. - 505 C.E. In the year 430 C.E. a common peasant boy was born to a small farming family somewhere in Talmiria. This boy would grow up to change the history of Ios forever and be the first man to unite all the warring houses and tribes into one. Not much is known about the man other than at an early age he was sold by his parents for money to a rich local noble and served that lord as an aide for most of his early life. It was here historians of Arnor believe that he learned court politics, basic military strategy, and all the major skills which would serve him well in the future. Shortly after Elitiel turned 17 the Lord of the castle was assassinated by agents of a rival household along with most of the court members. It is here that most historians disagree with what actually happened, the first account and most certainly the most glamorous is accounted here. With the household in chaos, the boy, now almost a man and the young bailiff of his now deceased lord, rallied the panicking servants together and regained order within the castle. It was clear to him the enemy would soon attack so he organized and armed the remaining servants with rusty weapons from the old armory to defend the castle. However, the knights, proud and arrogant, were angered by the death of their lord and this young boy's attempt to replace him. They storm out of the castle taking most of the weapons with them and promise to discipline the naive boy when they returned. Not much is known about the battle that took place outside the castle agains the knights and the enemy forces though we do know that the knight's were either routed or killed. This of course left the inexperienced servants, the old, the young, and the women to defend the castle. Soon the enemy army arrived and lay siege. Another divergance to the story is observed again, some historians say that the young Elitiel managed to fight off the invaders and took over the house hold from his dead master after the battle, others say that Elitiel was infact defeated but the enemy commander was so impressed by the young man's skills and leadership that he actually let him join them along with most of the castle staff and once the old commander died he gave leadership to Elitiel who then lead his forces to conquer most of the region. The second account of Elitiel's story is far less glamorous and much more sinister. Some historians say that it was Elitiel himself who killed his lord and took control of the house for himself using tensions he discovered within the court to his advantage pitting his senior officers against eachother in which Elitiel, the orchestrator of the chaos, lead them all to their eventual doom. After eliminating his enemies and the arrogant lords of the household it is said he claimed himself lord and released all the peasents from their serfdom using their support to beat back a small force of loyal knights. It was from there on that he amassed armies of the people training them to overthrow their lords in secret and built the foundations of his empire. (*To this day Arnor does not use a serf system and was the first House to be credited with using a peasant/noble regular army*) Whichever story is true is unknown, it is entirely possible that both stories could be completely wrong and something else may of happend, what is known though is by his 23rd name day he had gathered enough followers to create his own house, The House of Arnor, believed to be named after an ancient grand civilization Elitiel had read about in his youth. From that point on Elitiel went from house to house either gathering lords to his side with his immense charisma and charm, sending assassins and agents to corrupt and destroy form whtin, or crushing them into the sand with his now experienced and battle hardened armies (Most often using a combination of all three). Eventually he even took the provincial capital of Talmiria, the city of Gondolin, in 453 C.E. destroying the ancient House of Altaria that had ruled the Talmiria for centuries. It was at this battle he earned his name Elitiel, which in the ancient language of Talmiria roughly translastes to "He Who Guides Us to Greatness". After the Conquest of Talmiria, The Calm Before the Storm (453-458 C.E.) After the fall of Gondolin Elitiel began to settle down rebuilding Talmiria and re-organizing the entire region. Elitiel even took a wife of 21 years and a member of the Talmirian royal family named Allia hoping this would help the transition of rulers. Many of his followers thought this to be the end of their journey, they had conquered a vast amount of land, defeated all their enemies, and had more riches than any normal peasant (*Most of his forces consisted of regular peasents*) could have ever dreamed of. However, Elitiel had more in mind for the fledling House. His ambition was as boundless as the sea and he had soon set his eyes of the rich lands known as Ios. The Invasion and conquering of Ios (457-480 C.E.) '' '' The invasion of Ios by Arnor (also known more popularly as The War of the Blood Red Dragon) started in the year 460 C.E. and last till 480 C.E. in which Elitiel and his massive armies conquered and united all of Ios ending in the formation of The Kingdom. The invasion is normally divided by historians into thre major parts: the planning and initial invasion, the war itself which saw the most conflict, and the final unification after most of the fighting had ended. Combined these periods saw a huge loss of life numbering in the hundreds of thousands, some historians even say entire cultures and kingdoms saw their end during this war. Without a doubt The War of the Blood Red Dragon is the most important event in all of Ios' history in the sense of its utter magnitude and effect on modern day culture and politics. The Planning of the War (457-460 C.E.) Elitiel was restless. A man of great ambition and talent, Elitiel did not care for idleness and the calm serenity of life in the Altarian Pennisula. It was no place for great men. Elitiel had heard tales as a young boy of the mighty lands of the Ionians and the great wealth and power of its many powerful and rich families who had been vying for power and land with each other for hundreds of years. It to these lands that his ambitions for power, glory, and unity lay. A staunch imperialist and monarchist, Elitiel believed strongly in the unity and stability that a stable Monarchy brought. He thought it was his duty, as have all Lords of Arnor since, to unite all free people's of the land. The invasion of Ios was simply the next logical step in achieving this goal, however his followers were hesitant. The Kingdoms (Ios was divided at this time) of Ios were renown for their independence and formidable militaries, and while nobody denied there were several obvious weaknesses Ios had, including the hundreds of years of civil war and disunity of the people, few believed that any one nation could possibly control such a wide area of land. Virtually all of Elitiel's most trusted advisors, such as the future Duke of Enthir, were firmly against any further conquest. Despite this, Elitiel's will was supreme and he sent spies, scouts, and diplomats scouring the countryside of the Eastern Coast of Ios gathering information and looking for potential allies. After over three years of spying and intelligence gathering, Elitiel and the commanders of Arnor's military had a good idea of the strength and weaknesses on the coast. They decided to divide the force into two prongs of attack focused on the eastern coast of the center continent. The first prong, led by Elitiel himself, would lay siege to Castle Veddan and use it as a staging point for future operations and the second prong would go move to the modern day province of Morvaria to take control of the vital bridge there to cut off any immediate relief forces from the Southern factions. Arnor's navy would also go and block of the vital trading route between the Central and Northern Continent at the Silver Isle. Finally after 4 years of planning and preparing Arnor was ready to srike. ''The War Begins ''(460 C.E.) The first fleet from Arnor set sail early 460 C.E. crossing the waters and dividing into two forces landing at Veddan and Morvaria. As planned, Castle Veddan was caught completely suprised and and vastly outnumbered, the undermaned castle was quickly taken in a couple of hours with very few causalties on the side of the Arnorians, by the end of the first day the banner of Arnor was flying from the top of the castle. Meanwhile in Morvaria the ships landed the Arnorian forces under the Duke of Enthir